I’ve been tinkering with the formula for the Fight Level statistic, and I’ve come up with something that looks pretty darn good so far. Here’s how the new Fight Level will rate the featherweights and bantamweights currently in the database:

Featherweights

Jose Aldo – 26.30

Kenny Florian – 25.56

Chad Mendes – 23.08

Mike Brown – 21.47

Yuri Alcantara – 20.72

Mackens Semerzier – 20.62

Ricardo Lamas – 20.01

Erik Koch – 18.70

Diego Nunes – 18.60

Fransino Tirta – 18.42

Joe Stevenson – 18.38

Tyson Griffin – 17.74

Manny Gamburyan – 16.97

Hatsu Hioki – 16.88

Raphael Assuncao – 16.42

Tyler Toner – 14.71

Pablo Garza – 14.67

Matt Grice – 14.26

Michihiro Omigawa – 14.07

Fredson Paixao – 13.98

Leonard Garcia – 13.60

Dustin Poirier – 13.29

Tie Quan Zhang – 13.27

Javier Vazquez – 13.10

Rani Yahya – 12.96

Mark Hominick – 11.92

Josh Grispi – 11.59

Eddie Yagin – 11.45

Jonathan Brookins – 11.20

Jason Young – 11.13

Nam Phan – 10.13

Johnny Eduardo – 10.12

Junior Assuncao – 9.64

Darren Elkins – 9.56

Jim Hettes – 9.16

Chan Sung Jung – 8.61

Felipe Arantes – 8.10

George Roop – 5.23

Robert Peralta – 5.03

Mike Lullo – 1.38

Alex Caceres – N/A

I’ve been saying a lot that Chad Mendes should have gotten the title shot against Jose Aldo before Kenny Florian, but the new Fight Level would seem to disagree. However, it needs to be stressed that this is NOT the new SILVA yet. There are still adjustments that will need to be made, and I would expect that the overall SILVA formula will move fighters like Mackens Semerzier down, and fighters like Erik Koch up.

Leonard Garcia… there’s just not much I can do about him, as long as he receives full credit for his recent wins. I suppose I could say that he shouldn’t be credited on a subjective basis, but that’s a slippery slope to start sliding on.

Particularly low is George Roop, who has some losses that Fight Level just cringes at. I think Roop is better than this, and I’ll keep exploring ways to make things more accurate than they are now.

Bantamweights

Dominick Cruz – 25.95

Joseph Benavidez – 23.33

Brian Bowles – 21.66

Miguel Torres – 20.73

Demetrious Johnson – 18.71

Urijah Faber – 18.21

Scott Jorgensen – 16.43

Renan Barao – 15.99

Damacio Page – 15.81

Takeya Mizugaki – 15.63

Charlie Valencia – 15.58

Michael McDonald – 15.52

Yves Jabouin – 15.38

Cole Escovedo – 15.26

Ivan Menjivar – 13.33

Antonio Banuelos – 12.71

Chris Cariaso – 11.67

Nick Pace – 11.14

Walel Watson – 11.08

Norifumi Yamamoto – 10.76

Ian Loveland – 10.32

Eddie Wineland – 9.07

Donny Walker – 9.01

Mike Easton – 8.93

Will Campuzano – 8.10

Edwin Figueroa – 7.48

Reuben Duran – 6.45

Joseph Sandoval – 6.12

Ken Stone – 5.88

Jeff Hougland – 5.05

Byron Bloodworth – 1.07

Jason Reinhardt – (-0.51)

Francisco Rivera – (-1.91)

I love almost everything about Fight Level’s take on the bantamweight division. In particular, I like Jason Reinhardt’s rating, which is finally appropriate, and Renan Barao’s more reasonable rating as the 8th-best bantamweight, instead of 2nd-best. The only rating here I don’t like is Donny Walker… I think he should be lower, as he lost badly to both Ken Stone and Jeff Hougland, both rated below him. Still, when there’s only one fighter out of 33 that I’m not thrilled with, I’m a happy camper.